


Night Fire

by Desert Dragonfly (bookbeachbunny)



Category: The Walking Dead
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:28:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8031400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookbeachbunny/pseuds/Desert%20Dragonfly
Summary: Carol and Daryl deal with some old trauma and then start a fire :)





	Night Fire

**Author's Note:**

> So I am going with the idea that Daryl survives the Saviors and the comic book victim gets the Lucille death so if you don't want to be spoiled on the book victim it's in here. Also there is a location spoiler for Carol in season seven but just a location spoiler so if you're staying away from that again it's in here. Everything else is just made up by me!

Daryl Dixon wasn’t exactly sure what would happen when he saw her again. He just knew that he had to. Oh, he was mad at her for leaving but as he made his way toward the rather creepy house she decided was better than someplace safe he had to wonder about his part in that as well.nHe knew he hadn’t exactly been a good friend to Carol. Although another part of him was like nope, that was her fault.  
She had left him behind so easily.  
Then there was whatever she was doing with that guy.  
No.   
He wasn’t going to make excuses. He knew what he wanted now. A blinding flash of clarity with the bat. That hadn’t changed even after he got free of the saviors. That wouldn’t change. Because he finally understood that it didn’t matter what Carol said right now. It only mattered that she knew how he felt.  
His head was such a mess and had been for such a while that the tracker didn’t notice he was being tracked.  
Rick and the others had gone off to take down Negan. There was a plan. Daryl loved him like a brother but even he had to admit it was not one of Rick’s better plans.   
“I got to talk to Carol first man. Wait for me.”  
To his surprise Rick didn't want him, “Daryl, your already hurt.”  
“I can do what needs to be done.”  
“Daryl…”  
“All I’m asking is that you wait.”  
But Rick hadn’t been listening, “We have help. We can get this done and if on the off chance we don’t come back…”  
“Don’t say that.”  
“Then you get Carol and you go back and get Judith. Michonne and I talked about that. We’d want you two to take her and get her someplace safe and raise her.”  
Damn it.  
His head was a mess.  
Don’t think of Glenn.  
Don’t think of Glenn.  
That had been the nicest thing Rick had ever said to him possibly even nicer than the whole brother thing. Not that Carol wouldn’t have wanted to get the kid anyway if him and Michonne didn’t make it. Though they wouldn’t give up on Carl. He didn’t think Negan would kill Carl. “Don’t think about it,” he muttered to himself.  
But the thought of those that weren’t with him always weighed down upon him.   
“Daryl?”  
For a split second he thought she was a ghost and she was looking at him like he was one. His heart literally skipped a beat. What was wrong with him? He half pictured Merle slapping him upside the head. “What the hell is wrong with you, boy?”  
She took a couple of tentative steps toward him and he noticed the limp right away. “What happened? You’re hurt.”  
“I was hurt.”  
Anger mixed with the desire to grab her and pull her into his arms and absolutely refuse to ever let her go. Instead they just wound up standing there staring at each other playing a little game of who would break first. Daryl shifted his weight to his left side. Carol took a deep breath.  
“Come on, I have water inside the house.”

He didn’t actually tell her what he wanted to tell her though it was on the tip of his tongue- words like pebbles that just sat there. I love you. I realize that now. I don’t care what might be lost. That I might not survive losing you and you don’t even have to love me back. Instead he told her what had happened. The horrible nightmare in the woods. The mistake that cost Glenn.  
More words to choke on.  
And Carol, of course, comforted him. “It wasn’t your fault.”  
“It was. From the very start… he was out there because I was looking to get even with Dwight.”  
“Daryl, sounds like he would have been out there with Maggie anyway.”  
“She hates me.”  
“She’s hurting.”  
“I deserve it.”  
“Daryl, I’m not going to dignify that with a response.”  
For some reason her comfort was harder to take now. Maybe because he understood what he felt for her. Maybe because he wanted something else from her, no matter how much he told himself it wouldn’t hurt if she didn’t respond. And he did not want to think about what was lost.  
Maggie lead to Beth and Beth made him think about Merle, not that he didn’t do that all the time, and Sophia was always in his mind.   
And everything led back to Carol.  
Who was looking at him with those eyes and he opened his mouth to tell her, to finally tell her, but she spoke first. “I have to tell you something Daryl. About Lizzie and Mika.”  
“You don’t have to. If you don’t want to talk about it.”  
“But I do!” she cried. “Why does no one understand that I do?”  
“Okay, okay…”  
So she told him everything. He had imagined what had happened to the girls but nothing like this. She broke down twice when talking about it and he was amazed she had gotten through it. She even told him about how she had wanted Ty to punish her and a part of her had hoped he would put her out of her misery the night she confessed.  
“But instead he went and forgave me.”  
If Tyreese had still been alive Daryl probably would have kissed him on the lips upon seeing him again. He didn’t realize it then but even though they had never been particularly close in life he would forever after hold Tyreese up as a truly good man in his mind and wish he had known him better.  
“Do you think I’m a monster?”  
“No.”  
Carol took a breath. They knew each other well enough to know he was sincere. Daryl was always sincere, for good or bad, but with her it was from the heart. She wiped tears away. “Do you at least understand why I had to leave?”  
“Nope.”  
“Daryl, come on.”  
“Come here.”   
She hesitated for a minute and he had to go more toward her but in the end when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close he felt it. The moment the tension drained away from her. He could feel hot tears on his chest even through his shirt and he couldn’t have held her any tighter if he tried.   
He wasn’t leaving without her.

“Daryl!”  
“Hey asshole!”  
Carol’s eyes flew open. The voice was not one she recognized. It took her a moment to orientate herself. Someone was outside the house yelling for him. Daryl who was coming awake himself. They looked at each other with some surprise and confusion.  
“We found you!”  
She didn’t like the look on his face when he realized what was going on. He reached for the crossbow and started to move.  
“Daryl!”  
“Stay. They don’t know you’re here!”  
“Come out and play man and maybe we won’t hurt your friend!”  
“Shit.”  
“Saviors?” Carol whispered and she didn’t know why she was whispering.   
“If I give myself up…”  
“No! You go out the back. I’ll deal with them.”  
“You have to be kidding.”  
“They’ll kill you. They don’t know anything about me.”  
Well, she hoped they didn’t know her. So far, somewhat by accident, any run-in’s she had with the so-called Saviors hadn’t left any witnesses.  
“I’m trying to be a good guy here!” the Savior in charge yelled. “You think he’s going to be nice if you don’t come back willingly?"  
“Carol, listen to me. There’s no way…”  
“I have explosives.”  
“What?”  
“In the basement. Just in case.” Daryl gave her a strange look.   
“I’m gonna count to five!”  
“There’s stuff down there,” she whispered. “It was just in case I was desperate or cornered. But we’re going to need time to get out.”  
“Don’t do anything stupid, Carol.”  
Under other circumstances Carol might have taken that personally but he was already headed toward the basement. Carefully she made her way to the window. Everything she knew about these fools wasn’t much. She glanced out at the idiot who was on three. Daryl needed more time and on top of that she knew they needed to get them inside the house otherwise this would just be a distraction and they’d be running for their lives. She didn’t know if that was better. She also didn’t know what Daryl wanted. Kill them or buy time. In her heart Carol knew which one would keep them safer.  
“Five!”  
She went on instinct grabbed her gun and shot out the window without thinking. She wasn’t trying to hit anyone- right at that moment.  
The tall thin Savior who had been doing all the yelling stopped dead in his tracks. She had missed, of course, but not by much which wasn’t bad for essentially a blind shot. This time she didn’t even bother to hide. She counted about fifteen men with him then shot again toward the ground. A couple of them actually took cover but not the loud mouth.  
Carol noted he had a radio but she must have pissed him off because he wasn’t using it. Mostly she was just trying to keep them out of the house until Daryl was done.  
They made eye contact just as he tossed the radio aside and pulled out a gun. Carol got off a couple more shots and then threw herself down as they returned the favor.  
“Daryl! Come on!”  
At this point as she crawled closer to the kitchen she knew more than one was firing. Probably trying to make sure she was out of commission before they busted down the door. Daryl was cutting this close.  
Suddenly the gunshots stopped and everything was so silent she could hear Daryl hurrying up the stairs. In a split second she heard them on the porch rolled around and fired a couple of times at the front door. She had liked this place once. Creepy as it was. Being here had quieted her mind.  
That wasn’t going to be the case any longer. Daryl burst through and grabbed her hand. “Come on!”  
She didn’t look back when she heard the door break. A couple of shots fired to close for comfort for her and for Daryl but he had shoved her in front of him.   
“You think you can get away?” the Savior yelled.  
Carol had just stepped off the back porch when the explosion ripped through the house. She hadn’t even realized how many explosives she had been collecting. The man didn’t even get time to finish whatever threat he had been about to yell. The heat from the fire and the roar from the explosion silenced everything.  
Something hard slammed into her. Daryl. Then she was on the ground and he was covering her.  
She didn’t know how long.  
Couldn’t talk.  
Couldn’t really think.  
Pieces of the house were raining down all around them most of them on fire or small enough to be burning out already. She just hoped Daryl was okay.

And then everything seemed to settle. Daryl’s whole body ached and bones creaked and popped as he hauled himself up and reached for Carol. She had a couple of cuts and bruises and from the look on her face he imagined he did to. But they were otherwise unharmed. Daryl pulled her to him and away from the fire. He didn’t like the look the haunted dark look on her face when she looked back at the house.  
“Hey, you okay?”  
“Yeah…”  
“We got to get out of here.” Even if he hadn’t let the others know where Daryl was the fire would draw the Walkers, and probably, anything else in the area. Daryl squeezed her hand and finally, finally she looked away from the fire and at him. She even managed a smile. Daryl pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head.  
They didn’t have much longer until it was dark and he wanted to get back to the Kingdom before there was any more trouble.  
“Carol?”  
“It’s almost nice isn’t it?” he didn’t know if she was serious at first but then she turned to him with those big blue eyes. “A nice fire on a Fall night…”  
“Oh, yeah. Standing fireside with my girl. Totally nice.”  
They didn’t have to say anything else for him to realize what he had said and that she had caught it. She blushed a little. Of course Daryl thought that might have been the fire. But he could feel himself blushing a lot. He almost, almost ducked his head like an old habit. But instinct took over.  
His instinct for and with Carol and he didn’t this time. Didn’t turn away. Didn’t break eye contact. A beat or two passed between them and then she smiled and Daryl found himself smiling at her in a different way than he usually would have. She did turn away first brushing the dirt and ash from her jeans and blouse.  
“You’re right,” she told him reaching back with her hand held out toward him. “We should head back.”  
He didn’t hesitate to take her hand and then with only one glance back he led her over to the bike he had borrowed from the Kingdom- and for the first time in a while didn’t even spare a thought to the one Dwight had or what he’d do to get it back. He had what he wanted and this time he wasn’t about to let anger or revenge get the better of him. Back on the bike. It felt right even if it wasn’t his.   
She wrapped her arms around him and he reached for her hand and gave her a gentle squeeze.  
She squeezed back and for just a minute more they watched the fire burn and then pulled out onto the dirt road and headed back to the Kingdom. From now on he would go, and stay, wherever she needed him to be.


End file.
